This Is My America

Tracy’s relentless advocacy for her father’s freedom is epistolary in form. Over the seven years of her father’s incarceration, she has written many letters to the organization, Innocence X, which seeks to overturn the rulings of wrongly convicted individuals. Although she waits seven years for a response, these letters (and her appearance on The Susan Touric Show) do gain the attention of Innocence X, and lead to her father’s appeal case and subsequent freeing from prison.

The effect of these letters is to show Tracy’s character—someone who does not give up in the face of hardship and pursues justice with a single-minded focus and dedication. She mentions her family by name, brings up Jamal’s admission to college for his track prowess, alluding to the length of time that Tracy has been writing the letters to the organization. Tracy also uses these letters to process her feelings and questions about the nature of justice. In a letter from May 7, she writes about the slow nature of progress: “Does it mean a hundred years from now someone else won’t go through the same pain that my family’s been through?” (105) and reflects on its implications for her own father’s case. She receives no response, but the letters have become a way for Tracy to advocate for her father and explore her own growing understanding of systems of oppression and justice.

In her letter from May 10, Tracy decides to take her activism to the next level by conducting her own investigation into Angela’s murder. This decision sets off the series of events that ultimately lead to uncovering the white supremacist organization, Liberty Heritage for a New America, recruiting in their community, the truth of Angela’s murder, the truth of the Davidsons’ murders, and the freeing of her father.